Today's lecture

Today was amazing. This morning the university arranged a lecture by Irshad Manji, and if you don't know her I suggest looking her up. She has a very interesting cultural idenity and really emphasizes the importance of being a global citizen and as she put it so cleverly being "a trans-national soul". Irshad is a Muslim that was born in Uganda, but she had Asian heritage. When she was young they were forced to take refuge in Canada, but as of now Irshad lives in the US (when she isn't traveling to spread her message). The talk lasted almost two hours, but the most interesing topics came from the Q and A.

Irshad explained to us that there are degrees of diversity, as we understand in the world. The first degree is very basic. For example, the color of your skin, your gender, your age, or your orientation. To me, this kind of diversity is kind of superficial, when you think about it. It's the kind of diversity that schools and businesses put up on pie charts and brag about. It doesn't matter if all these people think the same, if they all look different then 'diversity', as they loosley define it, is achieved. The second degree, which I found to be the most interesting and especially true for NYUSH, is the diversity of our minds. The one component that the first degree is severely lacking. Something I find so amazing about NYUSH is that we all think so differently. When given a problem or a topic to discuss I find that my class has six different ways of solving it or arguing it. Part of this is because of our truly diverse backgrounds and the ideaologies that we were brought up with, but nonetheless the diversity of our minds is rarely put on a chart for perspective parents to marvel at. It's something that gets completely overlooked when people think of diversity. The third degree, and probably the most difficult to understand is the diversity in indivduality. How I, as a person and global citizen, contribute to diversity on my campus, in my country, or in a foregein place. So instead of placing people into categories like the first degree or groups of people who agree or disagree like the second degree the highest level of diversity looks at a single persons characteristics and counts that as diversity.

This theory really stuck with me. Now that I am a minority, this kind of distiction has finally become important to me and my identity here at NYUSH. I think that getting past the cultural differences and physical aspects of diversity this past couple of weeks has been an extremely rewarding experience. I have met so many people that have such incredible stories of hardship and triumph or travel or adventure. If the superficial barriers of diversity were still there, I would never have had the opportunity to gain and share knowledge like this with any of them, and for that I am so thankful.

In addition, I would like to add an interesting question that came up in the question portion of the lecture. Very few Chinese students participated in the question portion of the talk and a lot of that has to do with the language barrier and being able to formulate thoughtful and complete questions. Despite this, one brave chinese student stood up and asked "Irshad, all my life I have been told what to do by the government and by my parents, How do we begin to change this in China?" At first this question seemed normal to me. In America, teenagers are often very active in protest and change. For example, Pride rallies. I had forgotten for a second that this is strictly forbidden in China, and I was quickly reminded when almost the whole Chinese population in the audience audibly gasped after he asked his question. A full debate insued between the Chinese students as to whether or not this question was even valid. It was an incredible thing to watch, as one side argued that "The system worked just fine" and others that "the academic rigor that they have to go through is overwhelming, to put it lightly". After about ten minutes, Irshad had only one thing to say to the brave boy in the back row. She said, "I'm sorry, but I can't answer your question, because you are telling me that you're whole life you have been told what to do. It would be wrong for me to tell you how to change this, when I would just another person telling you how to run your life." Her advice was to figure it out for himself. She told him to use his time at NYUSH to challenge his ideals and find a better way for China, if that is his interest, but above all that he should take this time to find himself, by himself.

I've never experienced anything like it. Questions ranged from a struggling vegetarian trying to get approval from her family as she tries a new lifestyle, to the Arab Spring (asked by an Israeli) to LGBTQ community questions. To me that was diversity in itself, and I am proud to be a part of something that special.

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